Make Your Own Waves: The Surfer's Rules for Innovators and Entrepreneurs
192
Make Your Own Waves: The Surfer's Rules for Innovators and Entrepreneurs
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Overview
Like the ocean, the marketplace constantly changes and today's cresting?reward?becomes tomorrow's crashing?risk. Even the best surfers fall, but they learn from their wipeouts and paddle back out again, knowing that with big waves come big opportunities.
Innovation expert Louis Patler explores why 8 out of 10 business ventures fail and offers lessons learned from elite athletes that apply to business.?Before you venture out, take some advice from unlikely experts: Big Wave surfers who ride waves the size of a five-story office building using only a 9-foot piece of styrofoam. Like successful entrepreneurs, they must rely on preparation, planning, patience, and passion--and they relish a challenge.
Packed with stories of innovators, entrepreneurs, and legends, Make Your Own Waves reveals 10 Surfer's Rules that will guide entrepreneurs and innovators including:
- Learn to swim--the basics set the stage for everything
- Get wet--you can't succeed if you stick to the shore
- Always look "outside"--watch for what's coming or you may miss a better opportunity
- Commit, charge, shred--you have to go all out to be all in
- Never turn your back on the ocean--always stay in touch with the marketplace and the customer
- Stay stoked--desire drives success
Discover the do’s and don’ts for innovators and entrepreneurs that will lead you to success.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780814437247 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | AMACOM |
| Publication date: | 07/01/2016 |
| Sold by: | HarperCollins Publishing |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 192 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Make Your Own Waves
The Surfer's Rules for Innovators and Entrepreneurs
By Louis Patler
AMACOM
Copyright © 2016 Louis PatlerAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8144-3724-7
CHAPTER 1
LEARN TO SWIM
"In surfing, it's so important to get the basics down and then take it from there," says pro surfer Jordy Smith. "If your foundation is strong, you'll have all the tools you need to become a well-rounded surfer." On land you learn to crawl, then to walk. On water, you learn to float, then kick, then breathe, then swim, then surf.
I'll give you a quick example of what happens when you skip the first step. I was recently visiting a number of start-ups clustered around one another in a series of buildings called an "Innovation Park." As I walked from office to office and lab to lab, I was introduced to the principals at each company. The passion and high energy in each setting were palpable. One start-up was working on a new design for solar panels that could improve output by as much as 7 percent, a very substantial number in the world of solar energy. They were looking for second-round funding for the "proof of concept" data needed to bring the new design to market.
Just down the hall, I met some people who had breakthrough ideas for computer microchips that could withstand heat of 600+ plus degrees — nearly three times the norm. They were completing their proof of concept phase and had a wealth of information about how to do testing and gather data. As I listened to their explanation of what they were up to, I realized that they had overlapping interests and knowledge with the solar team less than 100 feet down the hall. I asked the microchip team if they were collaborating at all with the solar team and was met with a blank stare. They had no clue as to who was doing what and where. Their offices might as well have been on separate continents.
I tell this story to further make a case for the "clean slate" being a good place to start. To most, it's common sense to know how to swim before entering the ocean. But to many entrepreneurs and start-ups, the basics are often not obvious at all. A major part of mastering the basics in the world of work is knowing what the basics are in your given situation and how they are changing: the trends, the competition, the metrics people find useful, the strengths of your team, and your product's full potential. It also includes knowing what is going on a few feet down the hall.
As an entrepreneur, it's also important that as you grow you keep learning, adjusting, and modifying. One size does not fit all. As they say in surfing, you outgrow your board.
"I was fortunate enough to have my dad as my [board] shaper, but I definitely had a few growth spurts where I got too big for the board I was riding at the time," Jordy Smith says. The changes and modifications to a board can be simple and inexpensive at various growth stages, such as switching to a different fin but keeping the same board. Eventually, though, you will outgrow your board and be ready for the next iteration — or, more often, ocean conditions will dictate what equipment you need.
Surfer or innovator, as you grow and mature, the modifications you make are never set in stone. There is no set recipe, but there are many healthy ingredients from which to choose. One of the most basic skills is knowing when it is time to replace the old with the new.
For example, former pro-surfer Conan Hayes noticed the toll of age and injury on even the best surfers on the World Tour given the repetitive nature of their lives, the injuries, the arduous travel, and the long periods on the road. Looking for a fresh start on his own terms and timing, Hayes co-founded RVCA (pronounced "roo-cah") lifestyle apparel in 2001. RVCA quickly became a hit with surfers and skateboarders everywhere. After selling RVCA to Billabong in 2010, Hayes continued on his journey out of the water.
Or consider Kelly Slater, surfing's iconic double-digit World Champion. I saw a T-shirt once that read: "Jordan + Kobe = Slater." This is a reference to the fact that Slater has more world titles than Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant combined. Yet even Slater aged over time, so, like Conan Hayes, he has been involved in several business ventures and social causes — most recently the sustainable men's clothing company Outerknown, man-made wave pools and Slater Designs high-tech surfboards.
THE BIGGER THE WAVE, THE HARDER YOU PREPARE
I live about 30 miles north of one of the most famous and dangerous Big Wave surf spots in the world, Maverick's. Big Wave surfers come from far and near when Maverick's is "on," and entire books have been written about its unique history.
When I think of Maverick's, I think of two Big Wave surfers in particular. The first is Jeff Clark, who blazed the trail at Maverick's and was the first to surf it. (More about Jeff later.) The other is the late Santa Cruz, CA, surfer Jay Moriarity.
Although I'm not a Big Wave surfer myself, on many occasions I would stop by Maverick's and get vicariously pumped up by the men and women riding the giants there. Late one afternoon in 1994, I finished a project in the Silicon Valley and decided to swing by Maverick's to clear my head and see what was happening.
It was a typical Northern California fall day: overcast, windy, and about 52 degrees in and out of the water, with swells of two to-four feet. I drove past the small Pillar Point Harbor and turned down the road that winds its way to the dirt parking area. From there it is about a half-mile walk to the beach.
As I reached the water's edge, a young surfer who I'd never met came towards me carrying his nine-foot board. I said, "Hi, I'm Lou." "Hi," he said, "I'm Jay."
I asked him about the surfing, starting with the usual, "How goes it out there?" "Oh," he said with his great smile, "I didn't surf at all today. I just paddled around the point and back." We talked for a couple of minutes, enough for me to find out he paddled every chance he got (and that's after a full day at high school and a long drive to Maverick's from Santa Cruz, CA). He told me some of the landmarks of his paddle, and we soon said our goodbyes. When I got back to my car I pulled out a map from the glove compartment and checked out exactly where his landmarks were. I did some quick calculations and determined that he had just paddled 12 miles!
At the time, I did not know who he was, or the legend Jay Moriarity would rightly become. But I have never forgotten the lesson I learned from him about the basics: The training. The commitment. The discipline. How facing the joys and challenges of Big Waves, much like starting a business, takes a commensurate amount of hard work and preparation. That's also part of learning to swim.
BETTER THAN LUCKY
Today's business world contains many surfer entrepreneurs who succeeded because they paid attention to basics in order to create blockbuster products. Consider these success stories:
Nick Woodman had a penchant for making action videos and taking still photos in the water. At times frustrated by having only two God-given hands, Woodman would duct tape his 35mm camera to his arm as he ventured out. Realizing that others shared his frustration, he borrowed some money from his mother, experimented with prototypes, tested, and revised until he had created a breakthrough and affordable new kind of camera. He is the billionaire founder and creator of the GoPro.
Not too far away from Nick Woodman, Bob McKnight had an idea for a retail clothing line. Driving up and down the coast of California, from the back of his Volkswagen bus he gave away his fledgling company's versatile boardshorts to beachgoers as a way to get media attention. As his clothing line started to take off, he continued his guerrilla marketing tactics by sponsoring sporting events rather than using normal print and TV advertising channels. Thus was born Quiksilver, where he now serves as executive chairman. And, not resting on his laurels, when he noticed an untapped market for young, active girls clothing he launched what is now the largest action sport brand for young women, Roxy, naming it after his daughter.
Halfway around the world from Bob McKnight, Argentine brothers Fernando and Santiago Aguerre noticed that most shoes were not designed with warm or wet weather in mind, and rarely held up well for active people in tough weather conditions. Traditional sandals were not of sufficient quality or fit, and inexpensive flip-flops lasted about a week at a time. Seizing an opportunity, sturdy and long-lasting Reef footwear was born.
Though separated by thousands of miles and representing different industries, these three stories have two things in common: all trace their business roots to what they learned from surfing, and all started from the ground up.
As any amped-up entrepreneur will tell you, the power of bringing an idea to market is euphoric, and to be able to do it repeatedly is addictive. Like Big Wave surfer Dusty Payne and those other professional Big Wave surfers who are able to devote all their time and energy to surfing know, their basic preparation has made them "better than lucky."
"WHY DON'T I LIKE FLY-FISHING?"
Beyond the media circus that surrounds the so-called surfers "laid-back lifestyle," these are men and women who grew up facing changing ocean conditions daily and learned lessons that transcend the sport — about life, about themselves, and about how preparation expedites opportunities to succeed.
If you look closely at the Big Wave surfers, you can see a mindset, skillset, and toolset that would serve any entrepreneur or innovator well. To "those who ride giants," Big Wave surfing is more a "calling" than a sport, ... an irresistible passion comparable to the energy found in every innovation lab and start-up anywhere in the world — a calling that totally consumes you in spite of the obstacles and dangers.
Big wave champion surfer Grant Washburn describes this feeling well. "Some mornings I wake up and hear those 20-second intervals [between massive waves] booming from in front of my house, and I lay there and think to myself, 'Why don't I like fly-fishing? Or sailing? Or something else — anything else.'" To Washburn, when the surf's up nothing is more compelling.
SURFER STEP
1
LEARN TO SWIM
What comes before the start-up, invention, or new product? Many would-be entrepreneurs face incredible self-imposed barriers to entry that they can avoid by taking the simplest of first steps. Basic research, networking, and prototyping are essential. Without those first baby steps your dream is at risk.
Nine out of 10 start-ups fail, and in my research and experience 9 out of 10 times they fail because they try to bypass the basics. So, where does an innovator start? In the beginning, there is work to be done on three levels: the mindset, the skillset and the toolset. The mindset gives you the ideas and strategies. The skillset gets you moving towards gathering resources needed for implementation. And the toolset helps you to refine and execute. Taken together they are like three legs of a stool; they create stability.
Jeff Amerine is a successful entrepreneur many times over. Based in Northwest Arkansas, for 25 years he has been involved in the investor community as well, so he knows both sides of the equation. He and I have done TV interviews and podcasts together focusing on innovation and entrepreneurship because we share the same desire and perspective — hard work and good preparation make success much more likely. Most recently, Jeff has created Startup Junkie, a consulting practice that coaches, mentors, and advises startups regarding venture finance, business model validation, and growth strategies — the entrepreneurial equivalent of learning to swim.
THINGS TO DO:
It's important to start with the basics. As I do in my Innovating for Results Workshop, ask the following fundamental questions:
1. What business am I in?
2. What other businesses am I in?
3. Am I maximizing, leveraging, and aligning the benefits of all my businesses?
For example, at first most automobile dealerships believed they were in the business of selling cars. But when looking at where their revenue comes from, they realized they were also in the automotive financing and insurance business. The revenue from leasing, interest on monthly payments, and selling extended warranties exceeded the profit from car sales. When dealers realized this, they developed business plans to maximize all lines of business.
CHAPTER 2GET WET
"If it's breaking, you're out there. You don't need much," says Australian pro-surfer Julian Wilson. "A wave that spills is enough. It's all about getting salty. There's always an excuse, but we all know how good we feel after a surf."
There are people who look like surfers, dress like surfers, and talk like surfers, but they never get in the water. It sounds simple, but it's true — being in the ocean is not the same as being on the beach. There is nothing vicarious about surfing ... or business. You have to get wet to be where the action is.
Similarly, in the business world, there are people who talk and look the part of entrepreneurs and innovators but who have nothing to show for all those great ideas and dreams because they never muster the courage to stick a toe in the water, let alone dive in.
You might sympathize with them. The marketplace is, after all, like the ocean. It's wild and uncertain. The wind blows hard. The currents are relentless, the swells are endless, and riptides threaten to sweep you away. As Big Wave surfer Mark Healey says, "Anytime you step into the ocean, you're in an environment that's completely uncontrolled by humans." It's no wonder many swimmers prefer to lay on a towel and catch some rays. But Healey also says, "Everyone needs to connect with that sort of wildness in some way, especially in a time when there's so much noise and distraction in our daily lives." In the world of business, your willingness to touch the wild and unpredictable marketplace, to make that commitment, is what separates you as special.
Consider what an entrepreneur's life is like compared to that of the salaried employee.
Being an entrepreneur is not for everyone. But you don't necessarily have to go it alone. You can be an intrapreneur, an entrepreneur within a large company. You can also affiliate with organizations like The Unreasonable Institute to help you tackle social problems in an entrepreneurial way. You don't have to create a startup from scratch. You do, though, have to somehow get your feet wet.
Garrett McNamara is among a very elite group of Big Wave surfers who have been towed in and ridden waves estimated at 80 to 100 feet high. The video of him riding one of the biggest waves on record at Nazare, Portugal, went viral and had nearly nine million views. Even at his level, he had to decide when to leave the beach and head into the water. His attitude is so simple that we can all learn from it: "You just have to get out there to feel it, to get to know it."
SURF WITH THE AMATEURS
We all have excuses and self-imposed barriers. We can come up with dozens of reasons to stay on the beach. And just as we construct barriers in our own heads, companies have an arsenal of roadblocks, as well. As Intuit co-founder Scott Cook said when interviewed about innovation, "Normally, companies put up a phalanx of barriers and hurdles and mountains to climb that may not seem hard for the boss or the CEO but are intensely hard, impossibly hard, for our young innovator to conquer. So our job as leaders is — how do we get all those barriers out of the way?"
The surf community has always pushed boundaries and sought to keep things interesting. Within the culture, free expression is encouraged and at most local beach breaks there are special spots for the "groms" (children) and beginners. Fathers and mothers teach their daughters and sons to enjoy the special power of the ocean. They teach the basics of positioning, paddling, dropping in, and pulling out. And with more time in the water, the novice will start to learn the "rules" of the game created over many decades by the surfing community. As South African World Champion Big Wave surfer Shaun Tomson says in his book Surfer's Code, "All surfers are joined by one ocean. You aren't alone in wanting to get off the beach. There are many who'll help you get wet and make sure you don't founder."
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Make Your Own Waves by Louis Patler. Copyright © 2016 Louis Patler. Excerpted by permission of AMACOM.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents
Contents
FOREWORD by Shaun Tomson, ix,PROLOGUE: The Surfer's Rules, 1,
CHAPTER 1: Learn to Swim, 7,
CHAPTER 2: Get Wet, 15,
CHAPTER 3: Decide to Ride, 25,
CHAPTER 4: Always Look "Outside", 37,
CHAPTER 5: Commit, Charge, Shred!, 55,
CHAPTER 6: Paddle Back Out, 71,
CHAPTER 7: Never Turn Your Back on the Ocean, 93,
CHAPTER 8: Dare Big, 111,
CHAPTER 9: Never Surf Alone, 125,
CHAPTER 10: Stay Stoked!, 137,
EPILOGUE: Make Your Own Waves, 151,
AFTERWORD: Cathy Rodgers, 155,
Acknowledgments, 161,
Notes, 165,
Index, 175,
Free Sample Chapter from Title by Author, 183,
About Amacom, 194,